Beijing Bound

The Utah Jazz are the only team that can boast that they are sending two players to Beijing in August to play for the USA Olympic team.  Of course AK will be suiting up for the the Russians, so that brings the total to three.  Is there another team with more?

I don't think that fans have to be worried about this wearing out Deron and Boozer for the season.  If anything, they should be working out anyway over the summer.  It may not be to this extent, but they're both young.  I think it should make for a smooth transition into training camp. 

I wonder how it is going from playing with the top basketball players in the nation (possibly the world) to going back to playing with just "regular" NBA players.  It's not like you're playing just one All-Star game with no sets and nobody caring until the final three minutes. You're practicing with these guys for a month and playing for almost a month.  Is Deron going to cuss out Memo because he didn't catch an oop that was at the top of the backboard?  "Come on Memo, Howard would have had that!"  If I were other members on the Jazz, I would be practicing right now too.  Because Deron and Boozer are going to be coming back from Beijing already in stride.

And a poll question that I thought about while writing this.  Obviously, every Jazz fan would prefer to have an NBA championship over an Olympic gold.  But if you were a player, which would you prefer if you could only have one?  Stockton & Malone have the gold, but not the ring.  I guess it might be seen as more of an accomplishment winning an NBA title as you don't have the same talent around you.  But the Olympics might be considered the only true "World Championship" as it involves every country (including qualifying).  So would you rather have never won an NBA title but won the gold, or would you rather have the ring and have some other country win the Olympic gold?